Dear POOPster,
POOP’s here. The Eighteenth Annual POmpous and OPinionated List, that is. It’s time to try to make some sense out of this past year, a year in which three defining moments seemed to defy any and all semblance of logic. Bush was elected president. The Red Sox won the World Series. And Bush was elected president. It was a year that introduced new nouns to the lexicon, like iPod (appearing on three lists) and Jesusland (mentioned or implied all over the place). And Bush was elected president. Obviously, anything can happen and pretty much did. But at least we need not complain about the state of music. Afterall, you do your POOP list with the music you have, not the music you wish you had, and 31 self-important pontificators took that to heart and submitted lists this year.

As usual, I’ve attempted to tabulate the entries and, as is customary, I’ve employed the now time-honored What-The-Hell’s-He-Talking-About-Anyway System. One more time, I’ve given 2 points to each pompoid’s Top 10 choices and 1 point to each title beyond a Top 10 or in the variously designated ‘honorable mention’ categories (up to 25 titles). I’ve pro-rated titles above 25 listed titles, hence the half-points. Basically the more titles you listed, the less each one counted or something like that.

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1. GREEN DAY – American Idiot    22½ points (appearing on 12 out of 31 lists)

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2. STEVE EARLE – The Revolution Starts . . . Now    19 (11)

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3. WILCO – A Ghost Is Born    17 (10)

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4. ELLIOTT SMITH – From A Basement On A Hill    14 (9)

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5. FRANZ FERDINAND – Franz Ferdinand    13½ (8)

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6. BRIAN WILSON – Smile    13 (7)

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7. LORETTA LYNN – Van Lear Rose    11 (7)

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8. TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS – Shake The Sheets    10½ (6)

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9. ELVIS COSTELLO – Delivery Man    10 (7)

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10. P.J. HARVEY – Uh Huh Her    9½ (6)

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10. THE HIVES – Tyrannosaurus Hives    9½ (6)

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12. DEVENDRA BANHART – Rejoicing The Hands    9 (5)

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12. IRON & WINE – Our Endless Numbered Days    9 (5)

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14. BJORK – Medulla    8½ (6)

Buy from amazon 14. TV ON THE RADIO – Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes    8½ (5)

Good bathroom reading, everyone.

Mark Rosen PoOPmeister